rotator cuff tear

Hello everyone,I'm 45yrs old and I been diabetic for 6 yrs now and about 8 months ago I was working at the usps prossessing department and I must of pick something heavy and I hurt my arm. I went to my doctoring January and it took till now to get a MRI and I found out that I toar my rotator cuff, my question is should I get the surgery to fix it? I will be go to physical training first..

12 replies

Let me try and help you given my own experience.The first thing you should know is that there are 4 rotator cuff tendons. So you need to ask your doctor which one is torn. Then, depending on what the MRI shows, you may need surgery or you may need PT. For my own rotator cuff tear, I started with PT. My MRI showed a humongous tear in my supraspinatus tendon. No amount of PT would help so I had surgery and followed that with 6 months of PT. The treatment will depend upon the severity of the tear. Talk to you orthopedic surgeon first before making any decisions.

I had a tear last Feb. from a hard fall and had surgery..they had to take off some of the shoulder bone as well. I did P/T for about 3 months and did some at home,but my arm still isn't where it should be and the elbow aches alot even though it's not really by the shoulder and the bicep is still weak so going back to P/T for more strenghthening along with the hip which I am having replaced in July…

I had a tear last Feb. from a hard fall and had surgery..they had to take off some of the shoulder bone as well. I did P/T for about 3 months and did some at home,but my arm still isn't where it should be and the elbow aches alot even though it's not really by the shoulder and the bicep is still weak so going back to P/T for more strenghthening along with the hip which I am having replaced in July…

I had a tear and they did surgery, while they were repairing the tear, they found out that my bicep muscle had disintegrated. I did 6 months of PT after ward…I still do not have full use of my shoulder

Welcome to the club. I had the exact same surgery and problem with my bicep . It is not uncommon to involve the biceps when the is a problem with the rotator cuff that requires surgery. However, if the biceps muscle disintergrated, you may have also torn that muscle's tendon. I am sorry you have this problem but you should go see your orthopedic surgeon for reevaluation. This type of surgery does take a long a long time to heal but have your surgeon take another look. Good luck

Is your doctor suggesting surgery at this point? You don't want to risk further injury. This seems to be a fairly common injury now. I know of several people with this same injury. I actually had my rotator cuff repaired via arthroscopic surgery a few years back. I've had no problems with that shoulder since then. Medical procedures have certainly improved since then. Weigh your options and talk to your doctor. Then make your decision based on what's best for you.